Maren Morris Says Her Son Received Death Threats After She Called Out Morgan Wallen for Using Racial Slurs

Maren Morris shares her son Hayes received death threats after she spoke out against Morgan Wallen for using a racial slur in 2021.

While appearing on Thursday’s episode of Sophia Bush’s podcast Work in Progress, Morris said that the situation “as a young mother was obviously scary.”

The Grammy-winning artist continued, “It wasn’t death threats against me; it was against my son, too. So it’s like, ‘Oh wow, now we’re involving the kids.” She recalled that it was “incredibly dangerous and scary” to receive threats targeting her then-infant child.

Morris noted that when she looks back at her decision to call out Wallen, she doesn’t regret it and will not apologize for fighting against racism in the music industry. “I feel the exact same way as I did that day,” she said. “Would I maybe use the channels of Twitter again? Probably not. There’s probably more dignified ways to get my point across but hey, it is what it is.”

She continued, “Don’t be racist. Don’t be transphobic. Don’t be homophobic. I still stand by that so if you’re expecting me to feel bad, no I [don’t]. In fact, the only thing that made me feel bad is realizing even in this community of music here in Nashville—and I still live here—it’s like, ‘Oh wow, who will go to bat for you were people of color and who will go to bat for them?’”

In Feb. 2021, TMZ shared a video of Wallen returning home drunk with friends after a night out, where he repeatedly used the n-word. Shortly after the clip went viral, Morris commented on the situation on Twitter, pointing out that if it were a female country artist behaving as such, they would “be dropped, endorsements lost [and become] social pariahs to music row.”

She added, “It actually IS representative of our town [of Nashville] because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.”

A week after the video surfaced, Wallen released a video apologizing for his actions, asking those who defended him to “please don’t.”